14 seconds can be an eternity. At least it is for Leicester City.
The Transfer Window this summer opened on July 1st and closed at 11pm on August 31st. That gave the former Premier League champions 5,353,200 seconds to buy and register any player they wanted.
It looks like they will not be able to play new signing Adrien Silva until January, because they missed the deadline to register the Portugal international by 14 seconds.
The former Sporting Lisbon midfielder was one of the later signings on Deadline Day. Silva was expected to be a direct replacement for Danny Drinkwater. The England international joined Chelsea hours earlier.
#lcfc confirm terms have been agreed for the transfer of Adrien Silva, subject to international clearance ➡️ https://t.co/nEKAm2EMXW pic.twitter.com/vkrm4yId7F
— Leicester City (@LCFC) September 1, 2017
According to The Times, even though Silva's registration did not go through, Sporting Lisbon's president Bruno de Carvalho says the transfer was completed.
I would like people to realise that FIFA has not ruled against the transfer, but against registration. The transfer is done, what is at stake is the registration and I hope you can enrol. Adrien was exemplary. Leicester needs the player a lot and I hope they find a solution.
While FIFA are adamant that the registration was not completed in the allotted time, they still may allow the deal to go through in the coming days. Their current stance though is that Leicester will have to wait to register the Euro 2016 winner.
If that's the case, it's a massive blunder from the 2016 champions. They will have a world-class midfielder on their training field, but will have to wait until January to register the player.
Having already played three games this season, Leicester will play another 18 in the Premier League before Silva will be able to line out for the side.
While it's easy to feel sorry for both the player and the club, they did have two months to complete the deal.
